Can a married Catholic in good conscience use contraception?

[setter]

I ask this since statistically contraception is the common practice amongst the majority of couples who consider themselves as Catholic.

 

[Closer]

No!

 

[jmcrae]

The simple answer is “No.”

Many people will point out that we are to follow our well-informed conscience on these sorts of issues - and they are right. What they forget is that a well-informed conscience will always conform to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

If your conscience does not conform to the teachings of the Catholic Church, then it is not “well-informed” and the person needs to do more studying on the issue.

 

[Della]

If their intent is to prevent the birth of children no, they can’t use contraception in “good” conscience. If they do it means that their consciences are not “good” but ill-formed in the truths of the Church in this matter.

 

[LJN21]

I ask this since statistically contraception is the common practice amongst the majority of couples who consider themselves as Catholic.

Catholics my not use artificial contraception to avoid having children.

CCC 2370 Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self- observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. 158 These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, “every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is intrinsically evil: 159

Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality… The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality. 160

 

[setter]

Okay …but what if a Catholic is convinced that they are acting in good conscience, virtuous and exercising prudence in their decision to use contraception …because they have ample and serious reason to do so and in heart of heart have no qualms with using contraception based on their specific circumstances. Does this not constitute “good” conscience?

 

[leonie]

Okay …but what if a Catholic is convinced that they are acting in good conscience, virtuous and exercising prudence in their decision to use contraception …because they have ample and serious reason to do so and in heart of heart have no qualms with using contraception based on their specific circumstances. Does this not constitute “good” conscience?

No, it constitutes an ill formed conscience.

They should practice abstinence during their fertile times.

 

[mercygate]

Okay …but what if a Catholic is convinced that they are acting in good conscience, virtuous and exercising prudence in their decision to use contraception …because they have ample and serious reason to do so and in heart of heart have no qualms with using contraception based on their specific circumstances. Does this not constitute “good” conscience?

No. It constitutes dissent from Church teaching.

 

[fix]

Okay …but what if a Catholic is convinced that they are acting in good conscience, virtuous and exercising prudence in their decision to use contraception …because they have ample and serious reason to do so and in heart of heart have no qualms with using contraception based on their specific circumstances. Does this not constitute “good” conscience?

I would think then one is mistaken. It goes to a proper understanding of conscience.

In order to justify these positions, some authors have proposed a kind of double status of moral truth. Beyond the doctrinal and abstract level, one would have to acknowledge the priority of a certain more concrete existential consideration. The latter, by taking account of circumstances and the situation, could legitimately be the basis of certain *exceptions to the general rule *and thus permit one to do in practice and in good conscience what is qualified as intrinsically evil by the moral law. A separation, or even an opposition, is thus established in some cases between the teaching of the precept, which is valid in general, and the norm of the individual conscience, which would in fact make the final decision about what is good and what is evil. On this basis, an attempt is made to legitimize so-called “pastoral” solutions contrary to the teaching of the Magisterium, and to justify a “creative” hermeneutic according to which the moral conscience is in no way obliged, in every case, by a particular negative precept.

No one can fail to realize that these approaches pose a challenge to the *very identity of the moral conscience *in relation to human freedom and God’s law. Only the clarification made earlier with regard to the relationship, based on truth, between freedom and law makes possible a *discernment *concerning this “creative” understanding of conscience.

The judgment of conscience does not establish the law; rather it bears witness to the authority of the natural law and of the practical reason with reference to the supreme good, whose attractiveness the human person perceives and whose commandments he accepts. “Conscience is not an independent and exclusive capacity to decide what is good and what is evil. Rather there is profoundly imprinted upon it a principle of obedience vis-à-vis the objective norm which establishes and conditions the correspondence of its decisions with the commands and prohibitions which are at the basis of human behaviour”.106

Veritatis splendor

 

[jmcrae]

Okay …but what if a Catholic is convinced that they are acting in good conscience, virtuous and exercising prudence in their decision to use contraception …because they have ample and serious reason to do so and in heart of heart have no qualms with using contraception based on their specific circumstances. Does this not constitute “good” conscience?

No. That is a “badly formed” conscience. Their only defense in a case like that will be “invincible ignorance” - but if they are Catholic, then they cannot claim “invincible ignorance” because “invincible ignorance” requires not only that you not know the difference between right and wrong in the particular situation, it also requires that it be physically impossible for the person to learn the difference between right and wrong. Knowledge of the difference between right and wrong on the matter of contraception is available in many different forms in the Catholic Church. There are plenty of unbelievers who know that the Catholic Church opposes all forms of contraception because they read about it in their daily newspapers. It’s difficult, therefore, to imagine that Catholics can be less informed than their unbelieving neighbors.

 

[LilyM]

Okay …but what if a Catholic is convinced that they are acting in good conscience, virtuous and exercising prudence in their decision to use contraception …because they have ample and serious reason to do so and in heart of heart have no qualms with using contraception based on their specific circumstances. Does this not constitute “good” conscience?

Even so. If you don’t know church teaching that’s one thing. This is different.

The individual conscience isn’t supreme. Individuals can be and have been wrong. God’s truth, as expressed by Church teaching, is the last word.

And there’s no way a couple could ‘prudently’ or ‘virtuously’ decide to use contraception when it goes against God’s design for their sexuality and there are morally sound and do-able alternatives available, namely NFP and abstinence.

 

[setter]

No, it constitutes an ill formed conscience.

They should practice abstinence during their fertile times.

So, the majority of Catholics who contracept should be educated and directed to abstain during fertile times if they have serious reason to postpone/limit pregnancy? …The statistics alone would indicate that something is missing or grossly asunder.

 

[setter]

No. That is a “badly formed” conscience. Their only defense in a case like that will be “invincible ignorance” - but if they are Catholic, then they cannot claim “invincible ignorance” because “invincible ignorance” requires not only that you not know the difference between right and wrong in the particular situation, it also requires that it be physically impossible for the person to learn the difference between right and wrong. Knowledge of the difference between right and wrong on the matter of contraception is available in many different forms in the Catholic Church. There are plenty of unbelievers who know that the Catholic Church opposes all forms of contraception because they read about it in their daily newspapers. It’s difficult, therefore, to imagine that Catholics can be less informed than their unbelieving neighbors.

Uhmmmm …so if they die unrepentant, you do not give such a Catholic much chance of mounting a plausible defense on their behalf before the judgment seat of God.

 

[setter]

The individual conscience isn’t supreme. Individuals can be and have been wrong. God’s truth, as expressed by Church teaching, is the last word.

This sounds awfully heavy handed …are folks supposed to be simply a bunch of compliant puppets?

 

[Della]

So, the majority of Catholics who contracept should be educated and directed to abstain during fertile times if they have serious reason to postpone/limit pregnancy? …The statistics alone would indicate that something is missing or grossly asunder.

People want to do what is easiest for them or what their culture tells them is all right. That is fallen human nature–the very thing we are to fight against in the “good fight” for our souls.

Down through the ages there have been Catholics who went against Church teaching in their daily lives and thought nothing of it because it is easy for us to excuse ourselves by thinking of ourselves as the exception to the rule.

This sort of thinking is dangerous since it hardens our hearts to properly forming our consciences in accord with the unchanging teachings of Christ and his Church. And it is Christ we will all have to answer to, not our feelings or popular opinion.

 

[jmcrae]

Uhmmmm …so if they die unrepentant, you do not give such a Catholic much chance of mounting a plausible defense on their behalf before the judgment seat of God.

I think they did that to themselves. I’m just pointing out the facts of the case.

 

[Convert_in_99]

:nope: No! :nope:

 

[Genesis315]

No. People misunderstand what conscience is. It’s not whatever you feel you can do. St. Catherine of Siena, a great Doctor of the Church, described our conscience like a watchdog, that barks and alerts us when we shouldn’t do something or when there is something we should do. But, if we fail to feed that dog, he will become weak, and his barking will become softer and softer and until he can’t bark anymore. This is what has happened to a lot of Catholics–they have not fed their conscience with the sacraments (especially confession, without which their Communions become sacrligious) and the word of God as proclaimed by the Pope and bishops throughout the centuries.

It is not their conscience saying contraception is ok–it is their lower appetite which they have allowed to cloud their judgment.

 

[Sean_Boyle]

This sounds awfully heavy handed …are folks supposed to be simply a bunch of compliant puppets?

Are you living your life for yourself or to give glory to God?

Who is more important in your life. God or yourself?

Same question and there really is one right answer.

If you live for God, then your question falls away as not important.

 

[Genesis315]

Being a “compliant puppet” is not the ideal, but it is often the first step to sanctification. Often times people begin doing God’s will out of servile fear, but we must continue to grow so that we do so out of love of Him.